Pope Gregory XVI
|birth_place = Belluno, Republic of Venice |death_date = |death_place = Rome, Papal States |previous_post = |coat_of_arms = C o a Gregorio XVI.svg |other = Gregory }} Pope Gregory XVI ( ; 18 September 1765 – 1 June 1846), born Bartolomeo Alberto Cappellari EC, reigned from 2 February 1831 to his death in 1846.John-Peter Pham, Heirs of the Fisherman, (Oxford University Press, 2004), 187. He had adopted the name Mauro upon entering the religious order of the Camaldolese. Strongly conservative and traditionalist, he opposed democratic and modernising reforms in the Papal States and throughout Europe, seeing them as fronts for revolutionary leftism. Against these trends he sought to strengthen the religious and political authority of the papacy (see ultramontanism). He encouraged missionary activity abroad to increase the Church's international influence, but his harsh repression, financial extravagance and neglectfulness left him deeply unpopular domestically. He remains the last pope to take the pontifical name "Gregory", and the last non-bishop to become pope. Biography Early life Bartolomeo Alberto Cappellari was born at Belluno on 18 September 1765, to an Italian lower noble family. His parents were from a small village named Pesariis, in Friuli. At an early age he joined the order of the CamaldoleseRichard P. McBrien, Lives of the Popes, (HarperCollins, 2000), 336. (part of the Benedictine monastic family) and entered the Monastery of San Michael in Murano, near Venice. As a Camaldolese monk, Cappellari rapidly gained distinction for his theological and linguistic skills. In 1799 he published a polemic against the Italian Jansenists titled II Trionfo della Santa Sede ("The Triumph of the Holy See"),Richard P. McBrien, Lives of the Popes, 337. which passed through various editions in Italy and was translated into several European languages. In 1800 he became a member of the Academy of the Catholic Religion, founded by Pope Pius VII (1800–23), to which he contributed memoirs on theological and philosophical questions. In 1805 he was made abbot of the Monastery of San Gregorio on Rome's Caelian Hill.John-Peter Pham, Heirs of the Fisherman, 322. When the French Emperor Napoleon took Rome and expelled Pope Pius VII in 1809, Cappellari fled to Murano. From there he and a group of monks moved to Padua in 1814. After Napoleon's final defeat, the Congress of Vienna re-established the sovereignty of the Papal States over central Italy and Cappellari was called back to Rome to assume the post of Camaldolese vicar general. He was then appointed as counsellor to the Inquisition and later promoted to Prefect of the Congregation of Propaganda Fide ("Propagation of the Faith"),John-Peter Pham, Heirs of the Fisherman, 322. which dealt with all missionary work outside of the Spanish Empire, including to the non-Catholic states in Europe. Cardinal On 21 March 1825, Cappellari was created cardinal by Pope Leo XII,Richard P. McBrien, Lives of the Popes, 335. and shortly afterwards he was asked to negotiate a concordat to safeguard the rights of Catholics in the Low Countries, a diplomatic task which he completed successfully. He also negotiated a peace on behalf of Armenian Catholics with the Ottoman Empire. He publicly condemned the Polish revolutionaries, who he thought were seeking to undermine Russian Tsar Nicholas I's efforts to support the Catholic royalist cause in France by forcing him to divert his troops to suppress the uprising in Poland. Pontificate Papal election On 2 February 1831, after a fifty-day conclave, Cappellari was unexpectedly chosen to succeed Pope Pius VIII (1829–30). His election was influenced by the fact that the cardinal considered the most papabile, Giacomo Giustiniani, was vetoed by King Ferdinand VII of Spain. There then arose a deadlock between the other two major candidates, Emmanuele De Gregorio and Bartolomeo Pacca. To resolve the impasse, the cardinals turned to Cappellari, but it took as many as eighty-three ballots for a sufficient majority to be reached. At the time of election, Cardinal Cappellari was not yet a bishop: he is the last man so far to be elected pope prior to his episcopal consecration.John-Peter Pham, Heirs of the Fisherman, 322. He was consecrated as bishop by Bartolomeo Pacca, Cardinal Bishop of Ostia and Velletri and dean of the Sacred College of Cardinals,John-Peter Pham, Heirs of the Fisherman, 322. with Pier Francesco Galleffi, Cardinal Bishop of Porto e Santa Rufina and sub-dean of the Sacred College of Cardinals, and Tommasso Arezzo, Cardinal Bishop of Sabina, acting as co-consecrators. The choice of Gregory XVI as his regnal name was influenced by the fact that he had been abbot of San Gregorio monastery on the Coelian Hill for more than twenty years. This was the same abbey from which Pope Gregory I had dispatched missionaries to England in 596. Actions The Revolution of 1830, which overthrew the House of Bourbon, had just inflicted a severe blow on the Catholic royalist party in France. Almost the first act of the new French government was to seize Ancona, thus throwing Italy, and particularly the Papal States, into a state of confusion and political upheaval. In the course of the struggle that ensued, it was more than once necessary to call in Austrian troops to fight the red-shirted republicans engaged in a guerrilla campaign.Richard P. McBrien, Lives of the Popes, 276. The conservative administration of the Papal States postponed their promised reforms after a series of bombings and assassination attempts. The replacement of Tommaso Bernetti by Luigi Lambruschini as Cardinal Secretary of State in 1836 did nothing to appease the situation. Governance of the Papal States Gregory XVI and Cardinal Lambruschini opposed basic technological innovations such as gas lighting and railways,Richard P. McBrien, Lives of the Popes, 276. believing that they would promote commerce and increase the power of the bourgeoisie, leading to demands for liberal reforms which would undermine the monarchical power of the Pope over central Italy. Gregory XVI in fact banned railways in the Papal States, calling them chemins d'enfer (literally "road to hell," a play on the French for railroad, chemin de fer, literally "iron road").John-Peter Pham, Heirs of the Fisherman, 20-21. The insurrections at Viterbo in 1836, in various parts of the Legations in 1840, at Ravenna in 1843 and Rimini in 1845, were followed by wholesale executions and draconian sentences of hard labour and exile, but they did not bring the unrest within the Papal States under the control of the authorities. Gregory XVI made great expenditures for defensive, architectural and engineering works, having a monument to Pope Leo XII built by Giuseppe Fabris in 1837.Richard P. McBrien, Lives of the Popes, 276. He also lavished patronage on such scholars as Angelo Mai, Giuseppe Mezzofanti, and Gaetano Moroni. This largesse, however, significantly weakened the finances of the Papal States. Other activities In 1839, Gregory XVI issued an encyclical against the Atlantic slave trade, In supremo apostolatus,.Richard P. McBrien, Lives of the Popes, 339. Other important encyclicals were Sollicitudo ecclesiarum; that stated in the event of a change of government, the church would negotiate with the new government for placement of bishops and vacant dioceses (issued 1831),Richard P. McBrien, Lives of the Popes, 339. Mirari Vos; on liberalism and religious indifferentism (issued on 15 August 1832), Quo graviora; on the Pragmatic Constitution in the Rhineland (issued on 4 October 1833), and Singulari Nos; on the ideas of Hugues Felicité Robert de Lamennais (issued on 25 June 1834). Gregory XVI canonized Veronica Giuliani, an Italian mystic. During his reign, five saints were canonized, thirty-three Servants of God declared Blessed, (including the Augustinian Simon of Cascia), many new orders were founded or supported, the devotion of the faithful to Mary, the mother of Jesus, increased, in private as in public life. Death and burial On 20 May 1846, he felt himself failing in health. A few days later, he was taken ill with facial erysipelas. At first the attack was not thought to be very serious, but on 31 May, his strength suddenly failed, and it was seen that the end was near. Gregory XVI died on 1 June 1846, with two attendants near him at the time of his death. After his funeral, he was buried in Saint Peter's Basilica. Condemnation of the Slave Trade In 1839, Gregory XVI wrote that: }} See also * Cardinals created by Gregory XVI * List of encyclicals of Pope Gregory XVI Notes References External links * Category:1765 births Category:1846 deaths Category:People from Belluno * Category:Italian popes Category:Camaldolese Order Category:Italian Benedictines Category:Benedictine abbots Category:Benedictine bishops Category:Benedictine popes Category:Members of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith Category:18th-century Italian people Category:19th-century Italian people Category:Burials at St. Peter's Basilica Category:Popes